William Knapp (1698-1768) was parish clerk in Poole for 39 years and a prolific composer of anthems and hymns, such as world have been played by West Gallery bands in Dorset's churches including Stinsford. As described in Thomas Hardy's poem Afternoon Service at Mellstock or "The Mellstock Quire and its old established West Gallery Musicians" in Under the Greenwood Tree.
Provenance: The Bartelot Family Collection, mostly the property of Rev. Richard Grosvenor Bartelot FSA, Rector of Fordington, Dorchester 1907-1939, or his son Major R St G G Bartelot.
Grosvenor Bartelot was born in 1868 and went to Crewkerne Grammar School and Wadham College, Oxford, in the 1880s. In the next two decades he served as curate at Corfe Castle, Anglican chaplain in Turin, and as the Bishop of Salisbury's missioner covering duties of other clergy all over Dorset. He became a noted antiquarian and genealogist and was elected FSA. Having been born a Bartlett, in 1898 he changed his name to the original Norman form, Bartelot. In 1906 he became Vicar of Fordington St George, Dorchester, and next year he married Evelyn, daughter of Alfred Pope Esq of South Court and Wrackleford House, founder of the Eldridge Pope brewery. Having retired in 1936 to Timsbury, Somerset, he died in 1947.
